HISTORIAN CLEVERLY COLLECTS PIECES OF PLANTATION'S PAST

As a founder of the Plantation Historical Society, Diane Blakeley will go to any length to preserve a chunk of her city's past.

Even if it means using a ladder to scale the front of a strip joint on West Broward Boulevard.

That's how Blakely solved the Mystery of the Missing Lanterns and retrieved them for the Plantation Historical Museum, 511 N. Fig Tree Lane, where one now sits on permanent display.

"I would make a great detective," Blakeley said.

In 1947, when Plantation was a colony of a dozen homes, two electric lanterns made of black wrought iron were installed at the eastern entrance on Broward Boulevard.

They served as distant beacons for travelers as they made the lonely trek by car through dark cattle pastures, palmettos and scrub from downtown Fort Lauderdale.

"There was nothing out here," Blakeley said. "There were panthers on the road."

The lanterns, black wrought iron gates and brick wall were landmarks by the time Blakeley and her husband, Bob, moved to Plantation in 1956.

But one year later, the lamps disappeared.

The lights came down as part of the construction of Florida's Turnpike, the highway that tore through the then-eastern edge of Plantation in 1957 and gobbled up all in its path, including the lamps.

"I don't know what started me looking for the lanterns," Blakeley said. "I just love to look around and find things."

In this case, the search began in 1975.

It was well-known among old-timers that the lights had resurfaced on an Italian restaurant on Broward Boulevard.

Recapturing the lamps seemed simple; however, that Italian restaurant had moved out.

A new business had moved in. The lanterns now hung under a electric sign that featured a naked woman sitting on the words "topless bar."

Blakeley called the bar owner. He said, "No."

She called again. The answer was the same.

The telephone calls continued for at least a year, she said.

"I was polite about it and everything," Blakeley said ."Periodically, I would give a call. He finally said, 'If you want them, come over."'

That's when she shimmied up a ladder, measured the lanterns and swapped them for new pair out of a local hardware store.

With the help of her husband and friends, the lanterns were rescued and donated to Plantation Historical Museum.

Today, one lantern is in storage, and the other is on display inside the museum entrance, positioned in front of a wall-sized photograph of early Plantation.

It can be seen from 9:30 to noon and from 1 to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The museum is closed the rest of the week.

"Diane Blakeley knows how to find things," said Gen Veltri, wife of Mayor Frank Veltri and another founder of the Plantation Historical Society. "A few years ago, she found our city seal under the stairs at City Hall."